HEY! Yes, you! This is an update!

I haven’t blogged or made any kind of update in over two years. I’ve instead focused on my screenwriting career as well as my day job, which is in post-production. Both are still major works-in-progress, and as such dominate pretty much all of my free time. When I’m not doing that, I’m at the beck and call of my three-year-old daughter. It’s a lot to do in a day, which unfortunately puts my website on the backburner. Strangely enough, I have a few post drafts I started over the years saying roughly the same thing: that it’s been “too long” and that I should “write more of these.” This is another one of those inspired moments, I suppose.

I’ve been frustrated with the internet, nerd culture, and fanboyism at large for awhile now. For the longest time I couldn’t really put my finger on what was rubbing me the wrong way, but then I had a lightbulb moment while listening to the Scriptnotes episode in which John and Craig discussed the idea of “positive moviegoing.” Craig set out a very interesting method to watching film that resonated with me and got me to thinking about positivity in general. I realized that a lot of what was missing from the internet, nerd culture, and fanboyism at large was just that: positivity. Somewhere along the line we forgot to enjoy shit and instead turned everything into freaking Thunderdome.

That’s why Jandy and I have decided to make 2014 our Year of Positivity. Internet culture is built on extremism and it’s become too damn much. Nerd rages? Consider us over ’em. Hysterical tirades about that one flick that ruined our childhood forever? Nuh-uh, done-zo! Check out her post. She breaks the whole thing down further and even throws in an interesting twist to the concept; she picks out a “souvenir” from her entertainment, whether she likes it or not.

In light of Scriptnotes pushing me (and ultimately us) to this concept of a positive year, I’ll probably call my “souvenir” One Cool Thing, or Cool Things About [insert title here], or MAYBE even The John And Craig Of It All.

Will this plan be executed flawlessly? Probably not. I’m still a recovering cynical bastard and that tends to slip through sometimes. What I’m hoping this does is flush out most of the negativity in my system and give me a better outlook on my entertainment.

The past few months have been all over the place for me. I’ve oscillated between busy and not-busy so fast that there’s a serious danger of whiplash. I’m sure I’ll go into more detail in future posts, but right now I wanted to offer my thoughts on a game I played recently called BEYOND: TWO SOULS. You know, the latest and greatest 1 from Quantic Dream?

Here’s the synopsis of the game. In a nutshell you’re Jodie and you have this special connection to an entity, which gets exploited by the Government in some pretty messed up ways. Depending on how you enjoyed the previous games from Quantic Dream, your mileage here may vary. Personally, I loved the game. There were a lot of nitpicks I had while playing and some of the ending didn’t quite sit well with me, but I really latched onto the ambition in the storytelling. One moment I’m playing a young Jodie about to be handed over to a Government agency by her parents and then not thirty minutes later I’m sneaking through a devastated lab to find and close a rift in reality. Before I can say, “shit, bro, that was intense,” I’m playing a homeless Jodie trying to break into a small supermarket to keep from starving. Don’t even get me started about the VERY end.

While some people were left cold by the QTEs and “non-gaming” aspects, I thought they were great. These elements allowed me to focus on the story and not get too bogged down with points or skill trees or some of the more “traditional” mechanics of gaming.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Just wanted to put this out there to get back into the habit of writing as well as share my thoughts on a fun game.

The Scribosphere Carnival is a weekly discussion from a variety of screenwriting blogs around a rotating theme.

In today’s Screenwriter Carnival, I’m challenging my cohorts to think of one screenwriting myth they would love to correct.

Dispelling myths is important for something like screenwriting, where it’s all too easy to get wrapped up in the romanticism and ideals of the craft. Last week’s post covered the idea of being realistic about screenwriting as a whole, and this week I want to carry that thought further by dispelling what I think is a rather problematic myth:

WRITING IS A FEELING

Let me elaborate.

There’s the notion that we as writers are just “switched on.” We are always in tune with our muses and all we need to do is just sit down in front of Final Draft (or Scrivener or Celtx or Slugline or Highland) and BAM…off we go! Writing is a religious experience and we’re not truly writers if we don’t feel it.

The Scribosphere Carnival is a weekly discussion from a variety of screenwriting blogs around a rotating theme.

Emily Blake over at Bamboo Killers has posted this week’s Scribosphere Carnival topic which is ADVICE.

The topic for this week’s Scribosphere Carnival is one I’m not entirely prepared for in the grand scheme of things. Compared to the others, I’m the new guy. I’m greenhorn. I’m “aspiring.” Emily’s post about what to do with your screenplay is pretty killer and you can bet I’ve taken a lot of that to heart. Michael’s follow-up is also pretty great and dispenses the important advice of “keep writing!”

Hey guys, don’t forget that the Scribosphere Carnival is still ongoing and we’re still talking about our workflow. If you haven’t had a chance to submit your post for this week, you have about a day or two before we move on to the next topic. Per the rules, I get to pick the topic for the following week, so make the decision tough!

Let’s do this!

Image of Loki used for no reason, but hey, he’s quite the dapper chap!

The Scribosphere Carnival is a weekly discussion from a variety of screenwriting blogs around a rotating theme.

I’ve never been good at introductory paragraphs, so let’s get through this as fast as we can. Shawna over at Shouting Into The Wind created a new blog series to bring a bunch of us writerly types together to discuss the things that interest us as screenwriters. In that same post she set up the guidelines for the first week’s topic as well as how we would go about handling each new week. As it turns out, I was picked for this week’s topic:

WORKFLOW – Everybody has one, and none are the same. Inspired by a post from John August (referencing THIS SITE), you should explain where and when you write, what hardware you use, what software you use, and what you would change about how you write. Have at it!

The Scribosphere Carnival is a weekly discussion from a variety of screenwriting blogs around a rotating theme.

This topic is actually a 3-parter. First, recount your journey in screenwriting up to this point in time. Second, tell us where you are on your journey now. Finally, for the really fun, creative part — blog as if it is one year from today. What has the past year of your journey been like? What has changed? Be as realistic or not as you like — it’s your time capsule! One year from now, we will revisit our time capsules to see how we did with our predictions… Your post can be as long or as short as you like — the most important thing is to have fun with it!

I often find myself wondering what my cats are up to when I’m out and about. Do they talk about meaningful things or do they just sleep all day? This (semi) regular post series attempts to shed some light on what goes down when no one is around.

Today has been six months in the making! Dave and Killer discuss THE BABY!